I think there needs to be a bit of perspective here. To claim a Volvo has a half assed AWD setup 'because it is Haldex' is nonsense.
You can have viscous coupling, a setup using clutch packs, or just plain old 3 diffs and the ability to lock some of them.
Depending on how the system is setup and controlled, they can be very good. There is nothing wrong with having the vehicle mostly front drive with some torque delivered to the rear when needed. It is not inherently worse than any other system, and you will see how well Volvos are able to handle extreme traction tests on youtube where they mount the car on ramps and simulate zero traction using rollers on them. In this case, a LOT of what you would normally consider 'proper' 4x4s would fail the test where 3 wheels are put on rollers and one is left on dry tarmac, because the drive is sent to every corner but the one with actual grip. In that scenario only a full 4x4 system with the differential locked is going to work- very few cars have these because they are singularly useless for 99% of the driving most people will do.
In any event, I can assure you, from my experiences of off road driving as part of my work, all the ABS,TCS and drive shaft tom foolery does not matter a jot when off road because in that situation tyres become way more important. I have Goodrich BFGs on my truck and I still get stuck from time to time if I am not paying attention to what I am doing. And whilst these things might excel off road, on road such aggressive rubber is often far from ideal. They can be dangerous in the wet and are the worst thing you would have on your car in the snow, particularly when you have a much heavier than normal vehicle and more mass to handle when the thing begins to slide.
As for the OP, are you sure the car in question is not a 2wd variant? The vast majority of XC60s on the road are not AWD.
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